Top African technology news for January 13, 2017

7. PiggyBank says is helped users save N21 million in 2016

Piggybank launched in 2016 to help users save money automatically and according to TechLoy, it helped save N21 million during that period. It also announced a new update that lets users set their preferred payout date as opposed to Fridays as it previously was.

6. A security backdoor that allows encrypted Whatsapp messages to be intercepted has been discovered

Guardian reports that the backdoor was discovered by Tobias Boelter, a cryptography and security researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. He discovered that contrary to Whatsapp’s claims that no one could intercept messages on the platform, the company and its owner (Facebook) can actually read messages because of the way the end-to-end encryption protocol was implemented.

5. MMM Nigeria has resumed its operation one day early to “reassure members”

The popular Ponzi scheme suspended its operations in December 2016 after the number of people wanting payouts was more than those available to ‘render help’. It has now resumed operations before the expected January 14 date in a bid to reassure its members.

iAfrikan will be hosting the discussion with some of Africa’s top technology leaders and professionals on the trends they observed in 2016 and what we can expect in 2017. It will hold at the Mettā space in Nairobi on 26 January 2017.

3. Efritin’s parent company says the site will be run remotely following the closure of its Nigerian office

According to Techmoran, this was announced by Nils Hammar, the CEO of Saltside Technologies (Efritin’s parent company) during an interview. He confirmed that Efritin’s staff in Nigeria had been retrenched and the site will be run remotely from various bases. He also insisted that the move had nothing to do with the alleged fraud accusations.

2. Dr Valanathan Munsami is the new CEO of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA)

The news was announced on SANSA’s website on Thursday, January 13, but the appointment had been in effect since January 3, 2017. Dr Munsami held a number of positions within the country’s Department of Science and Technology and he brings “a wealth of knowledge and experience” in space science, technology, innovation and government policy to the agency.

In a statement issued on Thursday, January 12, the minister announced the immediate suspension of the tariff increases that were effected on Monday. PORTRAZ, Zimbabwe’s Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority had earlier increased the price floor to $0.02 per MB. Following the minister’s directive, PORTRAZ retracted its position claiming that the country’s mobile operators had asked for the increase.